David Sonnenschein offers live coaching sessions
+ 12 hours of lectures and demos

* Master theory and application of your audio craft to become a competent all-round professional
* Discover sonic tools and tricks to find an expressive voice and maximize your creativity
* Impact the audience effectively on intellectual, emotional and visceral levels
* Build successful communication skills with job-hiring producers and the post team

More Discounts! If you have enrolled previously in a PAID webinar with David, you can get the following discounts on this series:
SECRETS FOR GREAT FILM SOUND = 25% OFF ($188 total)
SOUND DESIGN FOR PROS = 50% OFF ($124 total)
Just email him at sounddesignforpros@gmail.com, stating the dates of the previous webinar, and you’ll get a discount code for registering.

“David’s workshops rock! His mastery of the material is clear from the first lesson. What really sets David’s workshops apart, though, is his gift for teaching, and personal interest in student’s work. He invited me to share a commercial film I was making with the class, and as a result I gained insights that helped me win quick approval of the project from my client. In that way, the class paid for itself right away.”

– Dan McComb, filmmaker, Seattle, WA

*** FOUR WEEKS OF PERSONAL COACHING – You will be invited to screen your sound design projects, finished or works-in-progress, for detailed, interactive feedback. This is undoubtedly the most powerful form of learning, where you can apply all the theory into your own work and creativity.

*** TWELVE HOURS of Lectures and Demonstrations of Sound Design principles.
You will have access to the recordings of this entire coursework theory and application with case studies to view as many times as you would like for the next 3 months. The six modules cover:1. THE INTELLIGENT EAR – Listening Modes, Sound Qualities and Bipolarities
By deconstructing the listening experience into discrete elements, the grammar of sound design language gives you access for clear and powerful communication.2. PLUG-IN POWER – Size, Distance, Speed and Non-Physical Reality
Understanding principles of real world acoustics and palette of subjective auditory experiences offers you enlightened use of digital processing tools.3. RULES OF the BRAIN ROAD – Psychoacoustic Principles and Applications
When the curtain is lifted on how humans process auditory information, you master the art of sonic illusion (creating and hiding) as essential tools in sound editing.4. SONIC TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM – Soundscapes and Sound Spheres
Creating an effective cinematic space depends on familiarity with your physical and social environment, and the knowledge of how to psychologically orient yourself through audio.5. AUDIO BUILDING BLOCKS – Constructing Sound Events and Sound Objects
Mastering techniques of sequencing, layering and mixing will infuse sonic fragments (sound effects, words) with meaningful messages (sound phrases, sentences).6. PEOPLE, PLOT AND PASSION – Narrative Structure and Sound Mapping
Bottom line, how can sound help tell your story? By understanding dramatic elements of character and emotion, the map can guide you to creative and impactful decision-making.

The title of my dissertation, ‘In Motion Picture, are some emotions harder to convey through sound than others?,’ arose due to the conclusion that me and my peers came to; that most of the writings and teachings on sound design that we had studied so far focused on inducing more negative emotions of fear and tension on the audience, for example some of the most written about films in terms of sound design are often sci-fi or action films that require this kind of impact. Why do you think that may be?
A lot of my coursework has required that I study the sound of such films, so perhaps this has led me to this train of thought, but having started to look at neurology for this dissertation and I have found that again, the negative emotions are too, far more established in writings. Do you think that it is because the parts of the brain associated with negative emotions are more primitive, that its easier to explain?(I understand you have a neuro background, I’d never normally ask that sort of question!)
So to summarise this paragraph, is it easier to scare someone than make them laugh with sound?

My response:

Without going into too much neurophysiology, I’d say that sounds
relating to fear or anxiety (tension) are processed by our primitive
brains for the purpose of survival or avoidance of pain. This is
common with many animals including mammals, birds, reptiles and fish.
A sound design that elicits anxiety, fear or surprise will work on
most people, regardless of individual differences like age, sex,
intelligence or cultural background, because we are all reacting from
those primitive brains areas.

More positive emotions like humor or empathy require a much more
developed sense of oneself and of the world, and need a context,
learning curve and experience. This applies as well to the use of
sound in media to evoke these positive emotions in the audience.

Humor is very particular to humans, and is also very dependent on
individual differences of age, sex, intelligence or culture. A baby’s
sense of humor will be very simple and often relate to a physical
stimulus. A small child hearing a verbal joke relating to their body
or body fluids will laugh, but not understand a joke about a more
sophisticated adult topic like religion, culture or politics.

Empathy can be in the form of romance, compassion or any other form of
bonding. This is a strong element of mammalian life, especially the
need to nurture helpless infants and to protect and feed the tribe.
Communication develops into higher brain functions of language and
symbols, both acoustic and visual.

Sounds that generate positive feelings like humor or empathy require
that the listener have some reference associated with the sound. This
can be within the cultural or family context, or if we are thinking in
film sound terms, it can be a reference that is set up within the
story, characters and soundtrack. In any case, there are more
cognitive, higher brain functions needed to activate the laughter or
tears, than the primitive brain reaction of being startled by a loud
or sudden sound, or building anxiety with an unresolved, unsettling
sound.

Film study literature has approached the fear induction quality of
soundtracks more frequently because it is easier to identify across
many different films and audiences. To analyze how sound evokes the
positive emotions requires a deeper study of a specific film, story,
soundtrack and audience, which may be different than another film with
different references. Isolating variables is definitely more
challenging, but a worthy area to investigate.

3) Competency in required skill sets, such as audio/video editing, writing, database building and management, game programming, graphics, web design, social networking.

You don’t have to be good at everything, but be really good at what you can contribute and be able to make and keep a clear commitment.

There will be tasks to be done in my office in Topanga (near Los Angeles) and also online, so I’ll give consideration to both local and online applications. If the intern is a college student, it might be possible to get school credit for this position, as I have done this already with interns both in Los Angeles and internationally.

NOTE: This is NOT an internship for someone who wants to be on a career track to the big studios. There is no sound editing or mixing job here that will give credit on any big movie or game. This is unique, not mainstream, so apply only if you’re up for exploring a new path.

REGISTRATION

Here’s what happens when you register for Secrets for Great Film Sound:

You can choose between two session times for the live Q&A and participant screenings, Mondays 6-7pm PST or Tuesdays 9-10am PST. After clicking on the link above, filling in the registration form on Instant Presenter, and making the payment on PayPal, you’ll receive a link to the live webinar meeting room. Please go there about 10 minutes before the first meeting time to check your settings for audio and video, and give a hello in the text chat to the leaders to let us know you’re online.

For both live session registrations, you’ll receive an email with links to the six recorded modules of training materials, which you can watch at any time. We suggest you take notes of any questions you have and bring those to the live Q&A sessions, especially if you have specific application to your own projects.

The interactive Q&A sessions with David and Ric will be live and spontaneous, but if you send in questions ahead of time to sounddesignforpros@gmail.com, we’ll answer those first with any prep that might be useful.

If you have a piece of your work that you’d like reviewed (up to 3 min.) during the live sessions, please send your link to Youtube or Vimeo, to sounddesignforpros@gmail.com, at least 24 hours before the meeting is scheduled. The first three submissions for each session are guaranteed to be screened, and if there is time after that we will screen more. Take advantage of this interactive coaching, as it is super valuable for all.

If you have already taken a previous Secrets for Great Film Sound complete webinar series and would like to get more coaching, you can register with 50% discount (for $125) by emailing to sounddesignforpros@gmail.com and request a “repeat discount code.”

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This is what people say about the David and Ric’s classes:

“David’s workshops rock! His mastery of the material is clear from the first lesson. What really sets David’s workshops apart, though, is his gift for teaching, and personal interest in student’s work. He invited me to share a commercial film I was making with the class, and as a result I gained insights that helped me win quick approval of the project from my client.”

– Dan McComb, filmmaker, Seattle, WA

“Ric isn’t your typical technical speaker. He’s energetic, funny, and thoughtful. He thinks outside the box and draws on his unique experiences to articulately teach really serious subjects, while never ceasing to entertain.”

Bottom line, how can sound help tell your story? By understanding dramatic elements of character and emotion, the map can guide you to creative and impactful decision-making.

*** FOUR WEEKS OF PERSONAL COACHING – You will be invited to screen your sound design projects, finished or works-in-progress, for detailed, interactive feedback. This is undoubtedly the most powerful form of learning, where you can apply all the theory into your own work and creativity.